Toy Review: GI Joe - The Adventure Team

01/28/10

Adventure Team

By the end of Hasbro’s foray into the 8″ scale, they had two sub-lines being released concurrently with the last of the 2007 Sigma 6 figures; the “Combat Squad”, and the “Adventure Team”. Both shared the same design themes and characteristics of the original line, but branched off in different directions.

The Combat Squad was a set of figures that took Sigma 6’s military themes and tweaked them a bit, making the figures military roles more realistic and accessory assortments closer to what soldiers would carry in real life. The figures themselves still shared the same anime inspired look of the Sigma 6 line (were in fact repainted and retooled from them) and the packages they came in were exactly the same except for some variations in graphic design and the fact that the end caps were green.

The Adventure Team, on the other hand took the line off on a tangent that I didn’t expect; the Joes as treasure hunters.

It was pretty high concept and a pretty bold move considering that we hadn’t seen a diversification like this since the days of the 12″ers. Sure you had the occasional GI Joe member who had a day job (remember The Fridge?) or came from another agency on loan (i.e. Shockwave), but at the end of the day, most of us associated Joes with the military, soldiering. They were supposed to duke it out with Cobra in tanks and jets with red and blue blaster fire passing back and forth harmlessly between them. That was the deal. This whole Adventure Team idea smelled like another “Trukk not Munky” situation in the making.

That feeling was disspelled as soon as people started seeing photos of the toys. The line featured 2 well known characters and 1 completely new one (to the line anyway). Not only did the 3 figures fit in perfectly with the rest of the line, they were given some great accessories (including a secondary toy) and a new package design that not only fit in with the old idea, but took it in the same direction as the toys they came with.

The box itself is a marvel. It’s pretty big. Bigger than most of the stuff I buy. If you were lucky enough to see this in stores, I’m sure you stopped to give it a look, even if you weren’t a fan. It has the same end cap construction as the original Sigma 6 line, but instead of the “metal” boxes, they had beige “crates” on the ends. Once you had the toys out of the package, you could use these crates as storage for the figures and accessories. I can’t tell you how useful this idea was and how much I wish we’d see it duplicated in other lines. The crates are detailed with molded woodgrain and rivets, as well as an Adventure Team “A”.

There are various labels on the panels, touting various aspects of the toy. There’s the KUNG FU GRIP! sticker out front, the big GI JOE: ADVENTURE TEAM on the bottom, and printed shipping labels on the top. The whole thing was seamlessly done and should probably be used as an example of excellent marketing.

There’s a huge window in where the toys are posed in the middle of an action. Normally I hate this because it means a whole lot of twist ties and plastic to get through, and chances of limbs and accessories warping in the package. However, in this instance it’s so well done that it’s worth it. Snake Eyes being spooked by the cobra, the tiger jumping Storm Shadow, and Recondo wrestling with the Crocodile shows off the toy, it’s articulation and it’s accessories in the best possible way. With the sturdy construction of this bigger 8″ scale, there’s less chance of deformation.

In the back there is some of the best product photography I have ever seen. Seriously, these photos are just amazing and I wish I had the equipment to duplicate some of it. Next to that is a description of the “adventure” that particular team member has undertaken and a list of their equipment.

Once you have them out of the box, there’s even more goodness to be had. The backdrop is a separate piece of cardboard with an appropriate setting already printed on it. The artwork is an improvement on the later Sigma 6 figures which were tied into the cartoon. These are more of painted environments that are pretty nice display dioramas if you’re willing to take some time to mount them properly. It’s an excellent include for collectors.

The other include (aside from the instructions, which are always nice and easy to understand) is the “Adventure Guide”. This little 14 page booklet serves the same purpose as those old fold up catalogs you used to get as a kid in you’re Transformer boxes. The ones that displayed all the toys that were slated to come out and the ones you could never find in the store. Rather than just boring product shots, the Guide is done as a mock industry newsletter or magazine, with adverts for gear, classified ads, and articles featuring more amazing product photography.

What is sad though is that you realize that this was meant to be only the 1st wave of Adventure Team figures. 3 more were already on the drawing board; Shark hunting in the Great Barrier Reef, Scorpion fighting in Atacama in Chile and an African encounter with a Gorilla. Sadly, like Scarlett, Wet-Suit, Dusty, and Joe Colton never made it to production (though a couple of test shots were sold on eBay).

The first one I opened was the “Pyramid of Peril”. This was the one that smelled the most like an Indiana Jones movie, with Snake Eyes trying to swipe an ancient jewel from a booby trapped pyramid. It even had snakes, just like the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The window give you a perfect view of the figure without having to peer around corners. If you’re an MOCer, than these will make you happy.

He comes with a pair of binoculars, a canteen, 2 flashlights, a “Fastshot blaster” (a shotgun in layman’s terms), a “Ruin-ripping sword (or machete), a “Raider zipline” (self-explanatory) with grappling hooks, goggles, hood, amulet (this line’s dog tags), necklace and belt (I’m not sure they’re removable), gemstone, sword booby trap, and the articulated giant king cobra.

That’s a lot of swag.

I love the play potential of this set. The zipline is really something since they’ve given you a generous length of string to use. I can set it up at my desk and it feels like Sky Commanders back in the day. You can even string it through his belt an have him climb the rope. Most of the gear can be carried by him via the Sigma 6 ports he’s got around his person, but he has to trade off the canteen with the binoculars or extra flashlight.

The booby trap was fun for a while. It works pretty well; stick the gemstone in the hole, set the swords, and if someone grabs it the swords scissor off their arm. The trigger isn’t really all that sensitive though, so you have to work at it if you want it to snap closed.

The snake is pretty nice. It’s got 5 joints along it’s length and one more at the jaw. The tongue flicks out when you slide the lever at the back of the hood. The lever’s ratchet joints are tight, so the tongue doesn’t so much as flick as it muchs as it snaps out slowly in spurts, but I doubt a kid would notice. I kind of wish he was taller though, so he could properly look Snake Eyes in the eye instead of the foot. He’s also kind of short for a “king” cobra.

About the only thing I don’t like about Snake Eyes is his paint/ color scheme. The drab green seems out of place on some one digging through tombs in Egypt. Not to mention that the black hood doesn’t seem to mesh with the rest of him. If they had colored the hood olive, or given him more black paint applications somewhere it might have improved his look.

I opened Storm Shadow and “Danger in the Jungle” in which he is supposed to capture a tiger whose been terrorizing an Indian town. Again, the package makes this set all that much harder to resist.

More than the other figures, Storm Shadow comes with the most accessories actually related to the story on the back. Sent to capture the tiger, he comes with several ways to trap him.

He comes with a “Gotcha” trap (like a bear trap), a “Tiger tamer collar and chain”, a “Grabber-stapper” (like a polearm with a big circle at the end), and a huge net. In addition, he has 2 “bush-blazing swords” (really 2 halves of a sword), a loop that clips to his back so he can carry the said sword, a GPS device that looks like a cellphone, goggles, and the requisite amulet.

The capture method I like most is the chain. It’s detachable from the collar, so you can use it like he would any other ninja chain weapon. It would go well with any of the other Storm Shadows I have in my collection. You can slide in the dagger end to the sheath on the back of the tiger’s collar and it doubles as a leash for the kitty.

The net is pretty good as well. It’s big enough to cover the cat, and is equipped with a drawstring so that he can pull it closed over him. it’s a nice play feature that I’m sure kids can get into more than I can.

The Grabber-stabber is something I will probably never use. It doesn’t really look like a ninja weapon that he’d normally carry and there’s really no way for him to carry it on his person unless he’s doing so with his hands.

The swords aren’t as nice as some of the ones that have come with previous figures. I’d have preferred a scimitar of some sort to go with the Indian theme, but at least you can split this one in two, sort of like the Power Sword from He-man. That clip thing plugs into his back so that you can use it as a sheath, though I wish they had given him a socket on his belt instead. One less thing to worry about losing in the long run.

There are a few quality control issues with this figure that the others don’t suffer from. It could be the white color of the plastic, but the paint applications on this figure are sloppy. The maroon of his armor in particular spills over and the register lines are all over the place. In addition, the tiger’s head falls off ALL THE TIME as you can see from the picture above. It’s not a big deal since it goes back on, but now I’m hesitant to get the Marvel Legends Savage Land boxset with Zabu. If the cat figure there shares the same problem as this it’s going to suck.

It’s also sad how the chest armor isn’t removable. It would have been nice to have another bare chested Storm Shadow sans the tattoo of the Shouri Crossbow version.

I don’t really know what to make of the GPS tracking system. It seems like something a ninja wouldn’t need. Snake Eyes never needed one.

I literally saved the best for last. I’d seen Recondo and the “Terror of the Swamp” set in reviews many times, but since there were only a few Sigma 6 figures that reached Philippine shores, I was never able to get one. This figure is really the reason I bought the set and he is totally worth it.

Recondo is the only new character in the bunch, not having a counterpart in any of the previous Sigma 6 assortments. I’m sure there’s a reused part here or there, but he feels totally new. There are no mismatched parts here.

You can see from the photo that the croc is HUGE, taking up a lot of the space in the window. It masses almost as much as he does.

He comes with a Croc-handler’s leash, a “Tranquilizer” gun, “Trail-cutter machete” and an “Outback knife”, a canteen, his hat, amulet, and this weird jack. He must be on his way to fix a blown tire back at the highway or something.

The two knives are awesome. Remember that great scene in the geektastic Crocodile Dundee where he says “thaht’s noht a noif…”? Well, Recondo has two of the damn things and can kick Paul Hogan’s Aussie butt.

The “Tanquilizer” gun looks nothing of the sort. It’s a bad ass rifle with all sorts of junk wrapped around it. It’s not one of the high tech ones that any of the normal Sigma 6 members would carry around, but it looks great on him.

Sadly it’s not a modular design like some of the older accessories. I’d love to have seen it built from one of those Switchfire pistols that come with all the Duke figures.

The Croc is probably my favorite among the animal accessories. Despite it’s lack of articulation (8 points total,and all swivels, most of them limited), he’s the best looking. His sculpt is nearest the actual living thing he’s supposed to be. The detail is great, with all the horny scales on back and the row of teeth.

He’s also got an action feature like the snake. If you stick Recondo’s hand (or your finger) into his mouth, the jaw snaps down on it. Ouch! It doesn’t actually hurt, but I had some fun surprising people who came to my desk to visit.

Frankly, Recondo is the best of the trio, outshining the other two without question. He shows the potential of the Sigma 6 and Adventure Team lines to be the best toys of their class. It’s a shame that we never saw the rest.

Sadly, these toys are hard to find, even online. I used to see them all the time for about $20-30 (back when I thought I might actually have a chance at having them shipped here), but locally, they never appeared in any quantity. The only ones I’ve ever seen were at specialty shops and it was usually Storm Shadow.

If you can find Recondo for Php 1500-2000, I’d say pick him up without hesitation. The play value of that set alone is worth the money. The other two I might recommend to a Sigma 6 fan, but the lower quality of those figures skews my perspective on their value.

Hopefully, Hasbro will come to their senses and use some of those production pieces they have an release a few more sometime in the future. I’ve tried the 3.75″ line, but they just don’t comprare in my book to these 8″ figures. While the smaller Joes are always hit and miss with a ton of figures that are awful and useless, there isn’t one Sigma 6 figure that I regret buying.

Not one.

Movie Review: Legion

01/27/10

Legion

Post-apocalypse stories aren’t new. Terminator, Matrix, Mad Max, Dawn of the Dead… all of them are about life after the end of everything. No matter how bad they are, end of the world stories seem to make for good box office no matter how bad they are. Just look at Roland Emmerich.

Me, I have a soft spot for a particular sub-genre, the Endtimes story. There are a few of them around in both film and literature. I remember watching Gregory Widen’s The Prophecy back on VHS in 1995 and going WOW!. Christopher Walken as Gabriel and Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer… “I can lay you out and fill your mouth with your mother’s feces, or we can talk.”

How can that NOT stick in your head?

It was the first time I had seen angels depicted in such a way. Not benevolent beings that lived in the sky and watched over us, but spiteful, petulant, scorned children. Sure it’s not what they’d have you believe in Catechism class, but it opened up a whole bunch of questions.

I went into Scott Stewart’s Legion without knowing anything about it, but I was surprised to find something similar to that first film. It had a lot of the same themes. Fallen angels, jealousy, children as saviors, violence, etc. It also has a strong ensemble like The Prophecy, including Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Charles Dutton, Kevin Durand and Dennis Quaid.

The plot involves God losing faith in Man, his most beloved creation and sending down his armies of angels to possess and destroy everyone on Earth. The archangel Michael, tasked with killing an innocent child, falls out of favor. When his brothers try and carry out God’s orders, he tries to protect the unborn child and it’s mother along with the other people who have managed to survive the holocaust. It’s not really all that original, but like zombie movies, it doesn’t have to be.

Stewart started out in effects, and it looks as if he brought that expertise to the table here, doing what he can with what he has to work with. The fights, stunts, and make up look pretty good for the low budget the movie apparently has. There’s some CGI mixed in, but a lot of it is practical apparently.

Cinematography is so so. There are some really frightening scenes that make you sit up, like the toddler with a butcher’s knife, but there’s also a lot of MTV camera work here; slow motion gun fights ad nauseum. I guess it comes from Stewart’s work with John Woo. We all know how that man loves his slow mo. But he’s also worked on Iron Man and Sin City, which gives him some of his cred back.

The acting is good. Bettany seems to be moving from nancy boy drama acting to honest to goodness action hero. Surprisingly, it seems to suit him, and he’s good in almost anything really. I would rather see him as an action star than Vin Diesel. Quaid is Quaid really. He’s like Michael Keaton or Tom Cruise. It’s always the same guy, but you don’t really care enough to notice. That the whole cast keeps a straight face while delivering some of the most heavy handed dialogue I’ve heard in a while probably saved the film for me.

The last 20 minutes are what really tipped me over, though. When Durand comes down as Gabriel, decked out in black armor, black wings straight out of a Caravaggio painting, mace to shame the Witch-king of Angmar in hand… well that is the kind of stuff I geek out about. When he started using his wings as a weapon, spinning around and disembowelling people, I was cheering.

The fight was pretty short, which made me wish that they had focused more on the Gabriel/Michael relationship, rather than these boring human characters. In the end, that’s really what’s wrong with this film; it takes way too long to show you the real characters and then takes focus off of them. Sure there’s that weird Doug Jones Ice Cream Man and the Carnivorous Grandma, but I honestly couldn’t care less about the baby and the survivors. All I wanted was more great costumes, more wicked angel weapons, more wing fights. Bettany and Durand make for a pretty bromantic couple and a sequel with the two of them waging a proper War in Heaven would be very welcome.

Like most geek reviews, take this one with a grain of salt. If you’re one of those guys who watches stuff like Y tu mamá también for ANYTHING but the naked chicks, then you probably won’t like this movie. We aren’t talking Oscar material here. This thing was made for a particular niche audience that is as narrow as the one for furrie porn. If you belong to that niche market, or you’re the kind of movie goer who likes anything with guns and explosions, then you stand a good chance of enjoying yourself. It’s a fairly entertaining way to spend and hour and a half, but you’re not really going to miss anything if you wait for it on DVD.

Toy Review: Marvel Select Thor

01/26/10

Marvel Select Thor

I never had a lot of Thor comics when I was a kid, preferring either Transformers, GI Joe, or later X-men. I do remember a few with the Thor Corp and several with Beta Ray Bill. To be honest, I always preferred Beta Ray Bill more than the original, because of the science fiction inherent in the character. Alien everyman with godlike powers trumps boring god in terms of story for me.

Still, I kept hearing about this new Thor costume by Olivier Coipel (who was one of my favorite artists before I left the comic hobby back in 2003) and the “great” Marvel Select version of it. I’d seen it once or twice in Comic Odyssey, but it wasn’t high up on my list since I’d never been a fan of the Marvel Select (MS) line. Of course, as is normally the case, I eventually broke down and bought myself one when I saw it at my local Toy Kingdom.

2 Rats is the local distributor of MS toys, and distribution of their toys is mostly limited to the major branches of Toy Kingdom like Megamall. If you have the time and are willing to go to the effort, you can often find the same toys that are found in Toy Kingdom at any 2 Rats location for Php 200 to Php 500 cheaper. I don’t have the time and I’m a lazy ass bastard. I paid the Php 1,500.00 asking price for this and considered myself lucky.

The package is nice enough, with some nice graphics and truly uninspiring product photography. They are sturdy and offer sufficient protection though, and they have a nice window to display the figure. They also have a nice, big graphic on the side which allows you to display the box on the shelf like a book (if you are an MOCer of course). If you’re careful, you can peel back only 3/4ths of the bubble so that you can replace the inner tray after opening. The cardboard flap on the side allows you to close it back up if you want, which is a plus. They only problem is that it’s BIG and it’s hard to stack without the cardback getting damaged, but again, that’s a problem for the sealed-forever-in-plastic-prisons folk.

On first blush, he does look pretty buff, and his heft really satisfies. He feels like one of those great Fin Fang Foom wave figures; like a nice chunk of plastic that would leave a nice bump if used for blunt force trauma in a CSI episode.

The sculpting is nice. He looks more beefcake than I’d like, kind of musclebound, but the level of detail is great. The plate mail is all sculpted in, the wrinkles and texture of his tunic, the folds of his cape… it’s all there. The face and hands are the only issues I have. They feel a little pulpy, soft and his face has a dead blank stare to it. A sterner expression might have felt more exciting.

He’s also got some really great paint work, worthy of the old Toy Biz days, but clean looking this time. There doesn’t seem to be a bit of cast color plastic on him, and none of the colors seem to be chipping so far. His skin tone is a little opaque, and the white on his wings seem a bit watered down, but you won’t notice unless you’re nitpicking.

He also has his hammer, Moljnr, and a display stand. This is where it starts to get hairy.

Moljnr, is a little on the short side for my tastes. In most of the images I remember, the hammer had a haft that was about the length of 3 of his fists. This one has about enough room for 2 and that would be pushing it. Plus the strap at the end seems too much like an afterthought, like the sculptor forgot to include it and they tacked it on after the fact. To add to that, it’s too small for it to be used. Thor is supposed to be able to swing the hammer using that strap and he’s too fat-fingered to get his mitts in there.

The display stand is okay, but there isn’t much you can do with it a side from stand him upright.

The scale of the turret is smaller than it should be (which is understandable given the size of him), and it doesn’t give you a lot of room to pose him in any really terrific poses. You know the Immagonnapoundyoutojelly kind of poses.

His scale is pretty great. Technically, he’s a 7″ scale figure, but he’s only a hair taller than the other 6″ scale. You can barely tell the difference in size between him and the Marvel Legends Beta Ray Bill and King Thor.

Unfortunately, you can see the difference in their articulation. I realize that I give articulation a higher standing than most of the other reviewers out there, but that’s because I don’t buy toys for display. If you want a display piece than you can probably stop reading now.

If you are concerned with joints, than know that Thor here isn’t going to win any yoga tournaments (do they even have these?). He has those combo post/swivel ball joints at shoulders, hips and knees, with swivels at wrists and ankles. I think he’s got a swivel neck, but mine seems to be paint locked. I’ve heard a few others have this same problem as well so it could be a quality control issue. Anyone who has a figure with a working neck please let me know so I can try to stick him in the freezer or something.

Though he is limited, I don’t think I’ll be selling him anytime soon. He is a great looking design, and I’ve only got so many figures that can hang out with my Conan.

Now if only they would make a Dargo Ktor figure, I’d have a Thor Corp set.

Toy Review: TF Crossovers: Hulk 2.0

Transformers Crossovers: Hulk 2.0

I’ve seen these Transformers Crossovers in the toy ailses for several years now and they always always always hang around for months after their released. I’m sure Hasbro had the right idea with them (Marvel Superheroes and Star Wars characters that transform into vehicles) and kids would have loved to get these for Christmas, but there were two factors that I think killed them.

First off, they aren’t all that nicely designed. Sure they’ve got that gimmick of hero robot to car or jet or whatever, but neither vehicle or bot mode looks that appealing. The necessity of the hero costume throws off both the design and the color scheme as well. Case in point: Thor. Who wants an A-10 Warthog colored in blocks of red, blue, and yellow? I’m guessing in store, kids gravitated to the clearly recognizable figures rather than these, and collectors didn’t need them.

Second, and here’s the kicker, the price. When they were released, these things cost Php 1,200.00 (about $23-25). That’s insane for a toy slightly bigger than a Deluxe Class Transformer (Php 700) or a Marvel Legend figure (Php 800). If by chance their child did come across this toy and choose it over a Spider-Man or Bumblebee, any parent would have balked at that price tag.

Even a Hulk fan like me was waffling over picking up the two tanks for the longest time, only giving in about a week before they went to clearance with a new price of Php 700. One week. FML.

After opening them, I was very dissappointed at how cheap they felt, with very little heft considering the fact that they’re Hulk toys. The vehicle mode looks nothing like anyone’s idea of a tank, and the robot mode doesn’t seem to be very playable. Despite a ton of racheted joints, he’s very fiddly and a spring in the waist keeps him from achieving anything really dynamic.

Sucker that I am however, I couldn’t resist getting the Wave 5 Hulk when I saw it at Toys R’ Us in Robinson’s Galleria. The wave was still priced at Php 700, and it was a Hulk toy, and a robot toy. The deck was stacked against me. According to the back of the card, Mr. Fantastic changed his mind, thought that Hulk shouldn’t have a transforming tank at his disposal, so he gave him a bulldozer. I fail to see how that’s a better choice, or how it’s supposed to help a being who is for all intents is invunerable and able to smash tanks to itty bitty pieces.

The packaging is a pretty straightforward carded bubble. Though the bubble looks huge and has tons of room to spare in there, it’s mostly empty air. The animeish illustration of the Hulk covers completely vacant space which, given the nature of the character, should have been filled with a bigger figure, or given it’s price, some kind of accesssories.

The back shows the rest of the wave, including the Black Wolverine and the new Spiderman Car. Apparently, only those three have hit shelves. The Punisher, Human Torch, and The Thing (which is a Bulldozer as well, so a repaint of the Hulk I guess) will be out later. Most of the other toys seem to be repaints, with the exception of Spidey. I’m keeping an eye out for the Punisher though, since his black and white costume lends itself better to a hummer than Captain America’s red, white, and blue.

Back to the toy I actually bought. It’s a bulldozer. Sort of. Like the first attempt, it’s really just some dude’s dream of a bulldozer. The parts are all there, but it doesn’t really look like something you’d see in real life. The sculpting of the thing doesn’t help. It’s simplistic, with a few stress fractures here and there, and some panelling etched in on the roof.

For the most part, it’s cast in color, with almost no paint applications. The green holds up fairly well, being relatively dark, but the gray parts look woefully ignored. The treads at the very least should have been given a once over with black. A wash to give the whole thing some aging would have been welcome as well. The only good thing is that there’s an application at the edge of the dozer’s blade to show that it’s been digging into earth. It’s too little and really only serves to emphasize the figures lack of other embelishment.

The toy feels even cheaper than the first version, because it’s even lighter and the plastic is more brittle. Mine had a small part of the window/leg snapped off even before it was packaged (I didn’t see the piece inside the bubble so I’ll assume it happened in the factory). You’ll see the white area where the figure is missing that piece below:

The angle of the product photo on the back kind of fools the eye, making you think it’s robot form is pretty impressive, but once you get him out of the package and transformed, it’s not. Not at all.

The transformation process is pretty simple, and doesn’t really feel well thought out. His treads are his arms, the fists hidden behind the blade, which get’s halved in too and becomes what is essentially kibble on the backs of his hands. The “engine” portion basically is basically just a block that remains the same. You just pop his head out of it. His legs and feet unfold from under the roof of the cab.

The first thing I thought of when I got him out and had him in robot mode was “GOBOT”.

If you remember back in the day, Tonka had it’s own line of imported transformable robots called Gobots. These were simple toys that were a lot like the minibots in Hasbro’s Transformer line. Most of them basically just stood up to transform. It was very dull.

This Hulk is a tad bit more complicated, but once you get him into bot mode, he’s about as much fun as Cy-kill or Cop-tur. Though he has excellent range of motion below the waist, his arms are basically just big bars that swing around their pivot. It makes for extremely boring play.

You’ll also notice how low his shoulders sit on his torso. Everytime I look at it I can’t get over how ridiculous it looks and suffer from another bout of buyer’s remorse.

Next to this new figure, the first release looks downright amazing. Not only are the proportions better, the figure heavier, but the articulation is much better. Seeing how this is the SECOND figure, that seems counter to all logic. What it feels like is a failed toy design that was put into production because it was already too far along not to push through, which is probably the case.

With the amount of space the figure takes up, and the kibble that litters the robot mode, they probably could have tweaked the design to integrate some of the parts better. Hell, if they had just thrown in an elbow joint, and some paint, it probably would have changed my perception of the thing entirely.

As it is, the old design may have it’s faults, but I will admit that the robot mode looked GOOD and a lot like a Hulk. This things reminds me of a green gorilla.

He does do a pretty good Rumble/Frenzy impression though.

Toy Review: RotF Deluxe Class Dirge, Brawn, and Lockdown

01/23/10

Deluxe Class Dirge

Brawn, & Lockdown

Since the Bayverse Transformers first reared their ugly heads back in 2007, we’ve seen a deluge of product coming out of Hasbro house. With a few exceptions, I’ve been indifferent to the toys that they’ve released in the movie line, preferring figures from the Transformers Animated or Transformers Universe line. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by the ones that didn’t make it into the movie like Stockade, Landmine, and the excellent, excellent Bludgeon (I realize I haven’t reviewed him, but trust me if ever you bought a Transformer, this Bludgeon is the one).

When Wave 8 rolled around, I picked up the one new mold that hadn’t made it to the film, Dirge (I also have Gears, but that’s just something I got as a sort of freebie). When Wave 9 showed up on shelves, I didn’t hesitate to get both Lockdown and Brawn. These three were all new molds that hadn’t seen production yet. I’d seen the previews of them both months back and I got to say, they all lived up to my expectations.

Let’s go alphabetically this time and start with Brawn.

Back in the Generation 1 days, Brawn was supposed to be one of the strongest Autobots, second only to the big bot himself, Optimus Prime. This of course was hard to believe as he was one of the original Mini Vehicles released back in 1994 and was this little thing that looked kind of like a robot chicken.

In the cartoon continuity he was much cooler, sort of the tough guy that depended on, well, brawn to get things done. There was even an episode where he went and borrowed Megatron’s Fusion Cannon. The bot’s got some huge balls. Of course, he was one of those that got wasted in the movie (the animated one, not that Bay crap) with that very same gun, so maybe not so smart.

We recently had a new Brawn figure from wave 4 of the Transformers Universe Legends Class figures, and it was pretty great. Of course it was a minibot, but damn it looked good. It was a G1 homage and looked so much better than the original figure. Sadly, the articulation was little better than the first one, and it was a Legends Class figure. Fun, but no where near scale. Thankfully, Hasbro brought us the RotF Brawn.

Though the back of the package may say different, this one isn’t really any kind of homage to the old toy. It’s more of an evolution of the character; instead of physical strength, this Brawn makes up for his short stature with sheer firepower. He’s got 2 pistols and a gun emplacement that goes over his back. He’s a walking army all by himself really.

Articulation is excellent with the multiple hinge and ball joints that are by now familiar to those who’ve been following the movie toys. I’m sure that later, after several months of play, the ball joints at the hips will become loose and you’ll need to do some superglue tricks to keep the toy viable, but right now, my figure’s rocking those points of articulation; neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, waist, hips, knee, and ankle.

He does have a few drawbacks however. If you’re one of the guys who likes the clean, box-type transformers, this one isn’t for you. He’s got way to much going on upstairs. He’s sort of a shell former, with much of the vehicle form’s skin hanging off him at various places. On the one hand it looks like armor, on the other it makes him look awkward and really THICK.

On the back of the package, Brawn is transformed with the panels at his hip arranged one way:

I prefer it this way:

It feels much more like a samurai robot with that “skirt” there.

His alt mode is another military SUV. It looks pretty good for the role, better than Ironhide’s actually. Like I said, he’s a shell former, so all those bot parts are just hidden under all those panels that made up his back and shoulders. The gun that goes over his head in bot mode shows up on his roof in truck mode, which is nice. You can even angle it up (though it doesn’t swivel).

He looks perfectly in scale with all the other Deluxe Class cars/trucks in his line as well.

I was of two minds after opening Dirge, but after some quality play time, it’s become one of my favorite toys of the moment. A unique transformation, a great color scheme, and some fine articulation really makes for an impressive toy.

Of course since he is a JET, the Deluxe Class treatment means that he’s a little on the puny side. Next to say, Jetfire, Dirge is going to look ridiculous. Like the Scout Class figures however, I actually like the small size. It makes the toy a lot of playability.

Like all Deluxe Class toys (except maybe those preview ones a few years back) he starts in vehicle mode. In this case it looks like a Harrier, one of those totally cool jets that I remember from when I was a kid. Remember pre-Titanic Cameron’s True Lies? Schwartzenegger kicking terrorist butt with Elisha Dushku holding onto the cockpit? Awesome. How we never got a transformer that turned into one of these before is beyond me. Now I want one that turns into an F-4 Phantom. Those things were mean as hell!

From the top, he looks pretty perfect. But if you turn him around, you’ll see some of the bot kibble start showing through where his engines ought to be. Flip him over and you’ll see quite a bit more. It’s not too obvious really and doesn’t detract from the fun of this toy.

I said he had a unique transformation and he does. It’s a doozy really. Took me quite awhile to figure it all out. It doesn’t help that his top half is asymetric, with the cockpit becoming one arm and the other popping out of the tail.

Once in bot mode, it’s apparent how much he’s influenced by Bay’s “robots-are-really-egyptian-gods” trip. Frankly I didn’t buy any of the goobledygook in the movie and I’d thank Hasbro not to continue it. That being said, he’s doesn’t turn out that bad.

Instead of the conehead he had back in G1, his head is formed of two separate halfs. Hasbro could have chosen not to give us this nod to the old robot sicne they could have easily fitted a normal noggin in the space there. Nice of them to choose the cooler path for a change.

Again, Hasbro seems to have forgotten a step when they transformed him for the product shots. In those photos, Dirge’s lauchers are attached to his wings even in robot mode.

Actually though, there are two holes provided on his arms that allow you to place them in the proper firing positions, just like any of the old seekers.

Articulation is still very good. I wish that the designers had planned something for the wings instead of just hanging them there in back of his legs. They seem like afterthoughts really, as if there was nowher to put them so they just dumped them there. It might have been nice if they were removable like the old G1 Seeker wings so you cold place them on his arms or on his back instead.

Detail in the sclupt is pretty amazing. There are tiny little seams on the skin of the jet like plates in the sheet metal. There’s a small “cockpit” that forms part of his chest in robot mode, another nod to the G1 Seekers. He has this neat, unobtrusive action feature on his chest, gears that turn when you rotate his shoulders.

Dirge also has an excellent color scheme, my second favorite next to Skywarps’s. The blue and gold looks striking, if not inherently evil. I just wish there were more readily available figures of him. That exclusive Henkei one is just way to expensive.

And finally we have Lockdown.

Lockdown was originally created for the Transformers Animated series, so is relatively new to the universe. His occupation as a bounty hunter probably made him a perfect candidate to port into the movie continuity, especially paired up with Ratchet (who he tormented in the cartoon).

Naturally, there were previous versions of Lockdown in the Transformers Animated line; the original, “Burning” Lockdown, and “Stealth” Lockdown. Plus several more in the Activators Class. I’ve got all three Deluxe figures because it was such a good toy. Tall, articulated, and mean-looking.

The RotF version is all that, but more so. It’s a lot more mean looking. Spikier. Sleeker. Sicker. The car mode looks like it belongs in that movie, Deathrace, chewing up the competition. It’s more detailed than the Animated version, with more realistic proportions and more complicated paint applications.

His transformation is a little different, with his hood becoming his feet instead of his rear. Once transformed, Lockdown is a vision of badassitude. Lean and Green. The hook he sported in the Animated version is now a permanent feature and his other hand is a more appropriate claw.

Hasbro didn’t forget that EM pulse generator thing that he stole from Ratchet in the show. His engine can attach to his arm to form the weapon. Very cool.

He is a little taller than the Animated version, and sports better joint work, with more functional articulation than his predecessor. Just look at his neck. There are 2 joints for that alone. All in all, this guy can kick ass.

So the big question: Are they worth it?

Answer: YES!

Lockdown is clearly the winner because of height, articulation, design, and sheer orneriness, but the other two are very good toys as well, though consider what you like about Transformers before buying. If you like innovative designs and good articulation, then yes, get them. If you’re a stickler for canon or for smooth lines and blocky robot modes, you’ll want to pass.

All three are still available at the php 700 price point, which isn’t too crazy expensive for the Philippine market (about $13-14).